


the bar closes at 5 (but the big man is just opening shop)

by mrsilikemyself



Series: la sombra sin eco [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Critical Role Relationship Week, Gen, Get In Loser We Are Going Shopping, Interdimensional Travel, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 16:30:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14981075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsilikemyself/pseuds/mrsilikemyself
Summary: A neon sign announces the name Gilmore's Glorious Goods to the rats. Yasha blinks. She hadn’t realized this was here.





	the bar closes at 5 (but the big man is just opening shop)

**Author's Note:**

> i got gilmore & yasha for day 3 of the critrole relationship week. the mental gymnastics that got me from there to this involve the new cyberpunk 2077 trailer, that weird time traveling film with bruce willis and a v young brad pitt and a dream i had that reminded me of disneys brave. also star wars (but. thats not surprising...) and pro wrestling (which i dont know Shit abt)
> 
> whatever it is that happened, this and my next two works will b in this verse and i?? have an idea for a beau centric thing?? idk mayb
> 
> anyways the title of the fic is from father john mistys god's favourite costumer and the name of the verse (trans. the shadow without echo) from a poem by josé luis hidalgo i found last week and im now obsessed with. he worked during the spanish civil war burying the dead in communal buryings and wrote some of the most haunting poems ive ever had the plesure to read. also fyi spain is the second country in the world with most unopened communal buryings
> 
> thanks to petey (who didnt edit this one but drives me to write just so they can read my ramblings), mikey, grace and spencer. ilu guys soso much <3
> 
> as i said, non betaed all errors r my own pls point them out to me nicely english is not my first language

Yasha walks the city, hidden between the smog and neon lights. Onward and upward, through masses of people eating from food carts and arguing with each other, always needing to go somewhere. She likes the squares full of idle youths, with makeup as extreme as their attitude problems, and loves the red district, where everyone is too busy getting some to give her a second look. Still, she will take what she can get. After all, The Empire spies from every corner, from every Intraocular Implant and Interactive Public Screen, and her days with this city are counted. 

Mollymauk is bolting town in a few days, she knows, with those strangers they met at the Spire. They all lie looking at you in the eye and Yasha thinks they are nice enough. She can’t find fault in having secrets, her, who has thunder under her skin, ready to broke out at any moment. Maybe she can go with them too, keep on fighting, but lately her skin crawls and her dreams are murky and ominous. Still, she hopes. 

In the middle of the street she sees some Crown’s Guard coming her way and slips into an alleyway to wait for them to pass. Shrouded in shadows, a blinking light in the corner of her eye distracts her. A neon sign announces the name Gilmore's Glorious Goods to the rats. Yasha blinks. She hadn’t realized this was here. Her feet bring her closer without her really thinking about it and she stares into the storefront. The sign washes everything in purple, turning the already strangely shaped glass bottles filled with indescribable liquids into aliens, with long, curved arms and necks. They remind her of Molly. 

“See anything you like, my dear?” asks a voice from her side. 

Yasha looks up and finds at the door of the shop an humanoid, old, with long grey hair tied in a knot low on his head and an even longer goatee braided with golden beads. He wears garish, engulfing robes that let some chest hair peek through and everything in him yells he’s not from around here but he stares with warm eyes at Yasha and, really, she’s also not from this quadrant. 

“Yes, I guess,” says Yasha. 

“Wonderful.” The man smiles and holds the beaded curtain that apparently acts as a door to let her in. “Welcome in, then. I’m the Gilmore, Shaun Gilmore, at your service, miss…?” 

“Oh. Just Yasha,” she says as she looks around. 

The store is very big inside, more than she would have imagined from the modest storefront, with two different floors and endless aisles that seem to cross and turn at random. It smells strongly of spices and there are murmurs and sound of steps echoing from who knows where. Something buzzes close to her head and Yasha turns to see a flying light, not a drone like she's used to, but a tiny star, floating around freely. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, just Yasha.” Gilmore brings her across the labyrinth to the till in what feels like a straight line but can’t possibly be. “Here at Gilmore’s Glorious Goods, we pride ourselves in having everything you may need, especially if you don’t know you need it, so. How can I help you?” 

“Those bottles in the storefront. Are they real glass?” asks Yasha. 

“Ah, you have a good eye!” says Gilmore, and with a clap, one of the bottles appears on top of the counter. 

Yasha glances between it and him for a moment but reaches out a hand. The change in light doesn’t make it any less mesmerizing and now Yasha can see the liquid inside it is clear, though it shines in a way that can’t be natural. 

“What is it?” she asks turning it in this and that direction. 

“An elixir that grants whoever drinks it a certain… Let’s call it savoir-faire,” Says Gilmore with a wink. “It’s a personal recipe I’m particularly proud of.” 

Yasha cocks her head. Molly doesn’t need that, that’s for sure. 

“It is very pretty,” she says as she leaves the bottle back on the counter (wooden, she notes, how curious.) 

“Indeed,” Gilmore laughs and, with another clap, a small flask, dark like space, replaces the bottle. 

“One of my rarer items,” proclaims Gilmore. “A distillation of the primordial soup from the dawn of life. Just a drop can cause an explosion like the start of existence itself or give immortality to whoever consumes it.” 

Yasha blinks at that and decides to not touch it. 

“That’s impressive,” she says, though, trying hard to put some inflexion in her words, afraid that this strange, nice man with mass destruction weapons thinks her rude. 

“Indeed,” smiles Gilmore again, just more thoughtful, making it disappear once again, a blink and it’s gone. 

He thinks for a moment and then, with a triumphant expression, takes a necklace from between his robes. 

“A present from a dear old friend, this amulet allows the wearer to survive sojourns through the cold vacuum of space or, alternatively, the deep oceans,” Gilmore explains, extending it to Yasha. “Unused. Extremely useful, without a doubt, just never had a need to leave my shops for that long.” 

The pendant looks like a polished stone but it’s so dark it doesn’t even glint in the light. Yasha grabs it carefully and finds it barely weights anything in her hands. 

“This is, oh,” she says softly. “I like this.” 

“There it is," smiles Gilmore. “It will be 300 gold pieces, thank you.” 

“I only have Imperial Credits…” hesitates Yasha. 

Gilmore sighs. 

“I’ve never really liked these cryptocurrencies, but when duty calls…” he says and waves his hand around, a chip reader materializing out of thin air. 

“Thank you,” says Yasha as she pays (not an incidence, even though now she must be very broke) and pockets the necklace. “You have a very nice shop.” 

“How charming,” says Gilmore. “Have a good day, Yasha.” 

When Yasha turns around to try and navigate her way to the door she finds it’s already just in front of her. She looks back at Gilmore over her shoulder, and he waves back, so with a small smile as goodbye she passes through the curtain and faces the city again. She knows perfectly well that if she were to turn now the shop wouldn’t be there. Instead, she tightens her hand around the necklace in her pocket and slinks back into the crowd. She hopes Molly likes their present.

**Author's Note:**

> got the cool magical objects out of [this](https://roll1d12.blogspot.com/) website which has some rlly rlly cool random d12 tables that ill def b using in my irl dnd campaign
> 
> find me on tumblr @/gaymersion and on twitter @/mesamargant


End file.
